Prison Architect Preview

I picked up Prison Architect during it's recent sale on Steam, and gave it a whirl. It's an early access game, but it's still a lot of fun as it is already. To think that there will be much more to come only helps to build the excitement I have for this game!

As far as I can tell, the basics are all in place. You've got your prisoners, your prison staff, and the various buildings and areas you can construct. What is in place seems to mostly be working well, and quite enjoyable to play with as it is.

My Prison in Prison Architect

For my prison, I've built up a decent number of cells, a little cafeteria, some places for the inmates to do work, and a reasonable security force to keep everyone in line. There's a lot going on, and a lot to learn, so I was very thankful for the extremely helpful tutorial when I first loaded up the game.

It's fascinating watching my prisoners follow the regime to the letter, and seeing my guards do their work. I could watch them sniff out contraband, go on patrol, get tired, get injured, break up fights, stop escape attempts, and so much more. When I first started developing my prison into the little fortress it is now, I didn't have a perimeter wall. I couldn't afford it. And of course, as a result, prisoners got it into their head that escape was very easy because there wasn't much to stop them. No armed guards, no walls, easy access to freedom, and the result was that escape attempts were plentiful. When I finally got my act together, the escapees dropped dramatically. The prisoners had a brain in them! Ah, these little things just amaze me, and really help make playing Prison Architect a wonderful experience.

If this game seems like it could be interesting to you, check it out! I am thoroughly enjoying this game myself at the moment, so I hope you get a chance to play it yourself. You can learn more on their site at http://www.introversion.co.uk/prisonarchitect/

Legends of Aethereus First Impressions

Alright, Legends of Aetheureus. This is a game that's still in development by ThreeGates Studios, and it's a game I also backed on Kickstarter back a while ago. What attracted me was the idea of how the combat works, they were going for a skill-based game like Dark Souls, and I really enjoy Dark Souls so I backed them on this one. They also promoted a highly customizable crafting system for everything, and great multiplayer action.

So, what am I thinking of the work they've done so far? Well, the crafting system is quite nice, lots of customization options and such. They've done a good job with it already, and I'm sure they'll continue to work on everything as release comes closer. Combat is well on it's way, skill really does help when it comes to fighting enemies. The stats you gain actually make you feel stronger, rather than as though you could finally just keep up with tougher enemies. As of now it still needs more polishing but I'm sure it'll be an amazing combat system when ThreeGates is all done with it.

So, my first impression of this game, it's looking good so far! If ThreeGates keeps up their good work then I'm sure we'll have a great game on our hands.

Gnomoria Preview

Gnomoria is a complex civilization building game, based around you ruling over a bunch of gnomes. If you've ever played Dwarf Fortress, think of something similar to that, but not as complex, and with a streamlined and easy-to-use GUI. It's got some interesting mechanics to it, and definitely a lot of fun.